Namesakes can bring positive and negative attention

Saturday

Jun 29, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Dr. Michael Blackwell received the honor Thursday of having a street named after him at the Mills Home campus of the N.C. Baptist Children's Homes, where he serves as president. While no street has been named after me so far, I have driven on Killebrew Drive.

Chad Killebrew

Dr. Michael Blackwell received the honor Thursday of having a street named after him at the Mills Home campus of the N.C. Baptist Children's Homes, where he serves as president. While no street has been named after me so far, I have driven on Killebrew Drive.Killebrew Drive can be found in Bloomington, Minn., near the Mall of America. The mall sits on the former site of Metropolitan Stadium, where the Minnesota Twins played. One the Twins' most famous players was Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew. The short road is named for him.My sister lived in Minnesota in the early 1990s, and my wife and I flew up for a visit one summer. That's when I drove on Killebrew Drive. Somewhere in a box at our house I have a photo of the street sign, too.Those of us with unusual names probably become a little more excited when we find an unexpected reference to our moniker. This can come from street names, celebrities or even hurricanes. In some cases, it can even involve tiny slips of paper or entire countries.In my case, Chad serves as a nickname for Charles, which is also my father's name. Growing up, I didn't know anyone else named Chad. The only other person I had heard of with that first name was actor Chad Everett. When I would visit souvenir shops that sold cards with names on them, rarely would I find Chad, though Charles was usually present. Even at Wake Forest, where I attended college, I didn't personally know anyone named Chad, although my wife recalls someone with that first name.That all changed when I came to Lexington. I'm one of three Chads at my church. One of my best friends is named Chad. Like a character in a movie longing to find those who are similar, I now feel at home.Chads gained national attention in the disputed 2000 presidential election. The recount in Florida in the race between Al Gore and George W. Bush focused on the small punches in paper ballots. The small pieces of paper that are punched out are known as chads.I once owned a word-a-day calendar that featured the word chad one day, and I had that taped to my cubicle for a while. That was the first time I learned my name was more than just a proper noun, but it had an everyday, if rare, meaning as well. In this computer age in which we live, not many chads are produced.A headline on an opinion column I spotted this week also caught my eye. "Justice delayed for Chad" it read. It wasn't referring to a person, though, but rather to the African nation of Chad.Not many people can say they share a name with a country, but we Chads can. I really don't know much about the nation, except for its location, the fact many of the people are poor and it has seen a lot of fighting over the past few decades.The column was written for the Los Angeles Times by a Chadian who was tortured by a former dictator in the late 1980s who later fled to Senegal. He wants to see the ex-strongman punished for the torture and hopes President Barack Obama, who is visiting nearby Senegal, will continue to support the effort.I can't say a trip to Chad is on my bucket list, but if I ever find myself traveling to Africa perhaps I can arrange a visit, much like I try to stop by Lexingtons in other states when I'm close by. Next month my family will vacation in Boston, so a visit to Lexington, Mass., for which our Lexington is named, is on the itinerary.For the most part, I've liked both my first and last names over the years. I hesitated to share my middle name — Hoyt — although over time I've come to appreciate it more. Killebrew sometimes brings some references to drinking alcohol, ironic since I'm a teetotaler. And Chad suddenly became a more popular name several years ago, so I don't find it as unusual these days to come across another Chad.This week my friend Chad and I were playing a game of Words with Friends when he played chad as a word. That could have triggered some cataclysmic disturbance in the universe, it seemed, but thankfully life went on as normal. Now if we could just encourage Chad Johnson not to continue his outlandish behavior and call our good name into question.Chad Killebrew is executive editor of The Dispatch. He can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 215, or at chad.killebrew@the-dispatch.com.